I am an evil giraffe. Who no longer blogs about politics.

You see, I know that the Wisconsin Supreme Court did a full-force smackdown of Judge MaryAnn Sumi’s incorrect and egregious attempt to subvert the will of the Wisconsin legislature with regard to labor union reform. That part is obvious.

I also know that (Democratic) Secretary of State Doug La Follette is trying to give his party’s Big Labor cronies two more weeks at the public troughs by trying to delay publishing the bill until the 28th. Like Ann Althouse (and presumably Glenn Reynolds), I’m not sure why La Follette thinks that he can get away with it, but I understand the gambit.

What I don’t get is this: if the bill hasn’t been published (and thus not law), why did Big Labor get to file suit against it*? And if Big Labor can file suit against it, then it’s law – and Secretary La Follette’s wrong about a key aspect of his job, right?

Seriously, while I am not a lawyer, I still don’t see exactly how the Democrats can have it both ways on this. Either it’s law or it’s not. If it’s not, then they shouldn’t be able to file a lawsuit. If it is, then La Follette is ignorant of his responsibilities. The Left should not be able to pick and choose like this.

Moe Lane

*Frivolously, as Hot Air rightly notes: differential treatment of various types of workers goes all the way back to Taft-Hartley. Good luck trying to overthrow that one, folks.

PS: Yes, I’ve already had somebody privately tell me that common sense sometimes has very little to do with the law.

5 Comments

The Legislative Reference Bureau has already published the law (it has joint authority to publish laws along with the Secretary of State). Don’t you remember judge Sumi throwing a fit and trying to enjoin them as well after they decided to publish the law (since they weren’t a party that was named as being enjoined) because they had a duty to publish it independent of the SOS? Since Sumi’s order is void ab initio, any alleged contract extensions that the unions and their union buddies on the various boards of education agreed upon will be void as contrary to the already published law.

I believe there’s a statement out already that the Administration is treating the law as being in effect already. If anyone tries to ignore it, they will be dealt with at that time.

If a Secretary of State has the power to delay a law by not publishing it for 2 weeks, can he also not publish for 4 weeks? 6 weeks? 2 months? 2 years? He really has this sort of supreme temporary nullification power over both the legislature and the governor? This sounds like a fun game! Can the Republicans play?